Math Obsesssion

Having gone through both a science and literature degree, I can confidently say I forgot 80% of the science I learned but English lit taught me how to think and that will stay will stay with me forever. My time would have been better spent focusing more on English #university

I think this would be true for most people, as a lot of what should be science education is really just math-obsessed pseudo-IQ tests that don’t really teach most people anything except math techniques they promptly forget in a few weeks.

This is not the future.

I’d guess that in 20-50 years, most of the math that is now obligatory will be viewed just as we see slide rules now, except not even with the mists of quaint nostalgia. Expert systems and near-AIs will be so vastly better at all but the most cutting-edge math than we are that it’ll be pointless to learn any of that, except the basics of how the approaches and algorithms work.

I say this not because I dislike math (I actually like learning about it), but because that’s just the way the future is headed, inevitably.

Focusing on math now is like if we taught every student how to build a car or a bus from scratch so they could get to school. Sure, they learn a lot, but what they learn is pointless, just as most math education is. (I know I’ve mentioned it before, but my partner resents all the pointless math she was required to take for her CS degree, although she is unlike me good at it.)

Jettisoning the baseless math obsession will also mean more diverse thoughts and projects are undertaken in science. This will be a very good thing and will probably help reverse the current near-stagnation.